Advisory Board

Jack Alcantara

Jack Alcantara has been a facilitator and presenter at Gender Odyssey since 2006. He was born and raised in Santa Cruz County by his parents who are originally from Mexico City. Jack’s parents and extended family have all been extremely supportive of his transition and often attend various speaking engagements locally to talk about family acceptance during the transition process.

Jack received his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from San Diego State University in 2001. Shortly thereafter he studied abroad in Madrid, Spain, for a year. Upon returning to San Francisco to start law school at the age of 25 he also began his transition. Jack received his Juris Doctorate from Monterey College of Law in 2010 and is currently in the process of passing the CA BAR Exam to become a lawyer. Jack currently works as a criminal defense investigator for a public defender’s office. Jack is also a licensed private investigator in CA. Jack is an active volunteer in his community, and has also been a Court Appointed Child Advocate, a role to which he was court appointed to mentor young boys who are wards of the court due to abuse and neglect in their homes.

Michele Angello

Dr. Michele Angello works with gender-variant youth as well as adults. She offers individual, couples, group, and family therapy, as well as corporate education and training on a variety of issues concerning sexuality and has presented internationally on her work with transgender, gender-variant, and gender-nonconforming youth. She facilitates several monthly support groups for transgender adults, youth, and parents and offers sessions to people around the world via webcam. Dr. Angello has appeared as a guest expert on Dr. Phil, Larry King Live, The Tyra Banks Show, ABC Primetime, Dr. Oz, and many other television shows and documentaries. She is also an adjunct professor in the graduate program of human sexuality at Widener University, and developed the first graduate course in the U.S. that focuses on clinical issues in transgender communities. Her private practice is in Pennsylvania.

Jaime Grant

Jaime Grant is the executive director of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College. With Jack Harrison and Jody L. Herman, she co-authored “A Gender Not Listed Here: Genderqueers, Gender Rebels, and OtherWise in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey,” published in the 2012 Harvard Kennedy School’s LGBTQ Policy Journal. Previously, she served as director of the Policy Institute at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

She holds a Ph.D. in women’s studies from the Union Institute. For six years she directed the Union Institute’s Center for Women, the nation’s only academic women’s center dedicated to collaborations between scholars and activists. Her articles on transformational organizations and coalition work have been published in major academic journals and anthologies.

Grant has offered a course in social movements at Georgetown University and workshops on gender expression and sexuality at Whitman Walker’s Lesbian Services Program and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change Conference. She has served as a program designer and facilitator for the Ford Foundation’s signature leadership program, Leadership for a Changing World, at the Advocacy Institute.

Asaf Orr

Asaf Orr joined NCLR in February 2012 as a Staff Attorney and works on issues related to families and youth. Prior to joining NCLR, Asaf was a solo practitioner in Los Angeles where he represented students in education-related matters including special education, discrimination, constitutional rights and discipline.

Asaf began his legal career as a Staff Attorney and Tom Steel Fellow at a non-profit legal services organization, where he directed the Rainbow Rights Project, a project that represents youth in education-related matters who are denied their right to an education on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. In addition to his work on the Rainbow Rights Project, Asaf also represented students with disabilities in special education matters before the Office of Administrative Hearings and federal court. In addition to representing parents of children, Asaf also provided trainings to students, parents, educators, health care providers, and lawyers on special education issues and the rights of LGBTQ youth in schools. He has provided those trainings in California and around the country.

After graduating magna cum laude from Rutgers School of Law in Newark in 2008, Asaf clerked for The Honorable Virginia A. Long on the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Gil Rich

Gil runs the youth groups for the Gender Diversity family support meetings at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital. Currently a corporate training manager, Gil also volunteers with Camp Ten Trees and the WSU – 4H Challenge program and has spent the past 16 years pursuing his passion of facilitating experiential education programs that help youth recognize their potential.

About Us

Gender Odyssey is an international conference focused on the needs and interests of transgender and gender diverse children of all ages, their families and supporters, and the professionals who serve them. Gender Odyssey is produced by Gender Diversity and TransFamily Support Services. Learn more about WhoWeAre and Our History.

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